Minnesota group fights makes an attempt to make voting more durable

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Exterior the beige partitions of the Ramsey County Courthouse, greater than 30 folks chanted “Democracy!” in near-freezing climate Wednesday and held up indicators studying, “We Select Us” – the title of a voting rights advocacy group that opposes efforts to make voting tougher in counties throughout Minnesota.

Members stated teams such because the Dakota County Patriots and MidWest Swamp Watch are “attacking our democracy” by calling for “harmful adjustments” that embody hand-counting ballots, limiting drop-off containers, and flooding a county election workplace with dozens of information requests which can be bogging down workers.

Drop containers make it simpler for seniors and other people with disabilities to submit their ballots with out standing in line for lengthy durations of time, stated Lilly Sasse, marketing campaign director of We Select Us.

There are safeguards in Minnesota to ensure the drop containers are safe, and “we must always completely hold them as a result of they hold our democracy extra accessible to extra folks,” Sasse added.

Within the weeks main up to the election, members of We Select Us plan to testify at county board conferences in hopes of persuading officers to proceed with machine counting of paper ballots as a substitute of switching handy counting. Election officers counter that machine counting is extra correct than hand counting.

MidWest Swamp Watch President Rick Weible instructed The Related Press that he hopes counties will cast off drop containers and as a substitute use the cash to encourage extra mail-in balloting, which he stated could be extra accessible to folks within the incapacity neighborhood. He added that the general public ought to be capable to entry detailed information to find out the effectiveness and safety of voting equipment.

Dakota County Patriots didn’t instantly reply to AP’s requests for touch upon Wednesday.

“Our workplace is conscious that county boards, which set some guidelines and procedures for elections administration, have more and more been contacted by members of the general public about coverage proposals that appear to be impressed by disinformation about how elections are carried out in Minnesota,” Cassondra Knudson, a spokesperson for Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, stated in an e mail.

“In actuality, Minnesota is appeared to as a nationwide chief in elections legislation and insurance policies that equally prioritize accessibility, safety, and accuracy,” Knudson stated.

Throughout the nation, election staff are dealing with conspiracy theories and harassment from these doubting the integrity of voting gear. Drop containers have been a frequent flash level.

Regardless of false claims by former President Donald Trump and his allies that the 2020 election was stolen on account of manipulated voting machines, there isn’t a proof to help these claims – no main issues have been reported for voting gear, and audits confirmed that the gear labored accurately through the election.